Onboard control computers have become prevalent in motor vehicles, but as safety, economy, and emissions requirements have continued to tighten. Successive generations of onboard control computers have acquired increasing data sensing and retention capability as the electronics have advanced.
Present external diagnostic and display apparatus, known as diagnostic tools, are commonly limited to reporting the data acquired by the onboard control computer itself. Increasingly, subtle subsystem failures in vehicles overload the ability of maintenance technicians, not simply to read the faults detected and stored by the diagnostic tools themselves, but to combine those readings with peripheral measurements and deduce corrective actions with both speed and accuracy.
Currently in the automotive industry, there are both stand alone and hand-held diagnostic testers or tools used in connection with motor vehicle maintenance and repair. For example, hand-held diagnostic tools have been used to trouble-shoot faults associated with vehicular control units. Diagnostic tools detect faults based on Diagnostic Trouble Codes or DTCs that are set in the vehicle's onboard control computer. A DTC can be triggered and stored when there is a problem with the vehicle. A technician then retrieves the DTC using a diagnostic tool, repairs the associated problem and then deletes the DTC from the vehicle's computer.
Vehicle diagnostics have also been performed through personal computers. However, the display of such diagnostic information has always been difficult to read for technicians. Furthermore, technicians have also needed extensive learning in order to read such diagnostic information.
Further general vehicle health information has also been monitored through personal computers, or standalone computing modules that measure information related to emission testing. Certain sensors are attached to the vehicle to make certain measurements related to environmental emissions or safety related information of the vehicle.
The current diagnostic tools and personal computers used for vehicle diagnostics and vehicle health information are limited in the display output, thus limiting the usefulness of the diagnostic tool for a user. The limits on the current tools output capabilities include, for example, problems with the method of indicating the DTC, or vehicle health information such as the measurement of a certain sensors in the vehicle. The current diagnostic tools show the DTC on a basic display that displays the basic information and such information, then must be checked manually or through additional steps to ascertain whether the information is within the normal limits. The user must be in close proximity and in viewing distance from the diagnostic tool as the information is usually text based. For example, when a diagnostic tool detects a DTC or an emission testing result, a user must directly view the tool in order to see the DTC or emission testing readout.
The user of the diagnostic tool can be forced to use additional devices in order to supplement the limitations of output methods of today's diagnostic tools or personal computers used for diagnostic purposes. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus that will allow enhanced display capabilities to a user or technician to use a diagnostic tool or diagnostic personal computer to determine the output of the vehicle's health information in a manner that is easy and quick to ascertain whether it is within certain constraints, presently and over time.